


Lead Astray

by SpiritWorld



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, Domestic, Fluff, M/M, Pets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 09:05:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3405035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritWorld/pseuds/SpiritWorld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako would admit to a lot of things. Like that work made him extremely tired and that he tended to be constantly cranky, but there was no way he'd admit that he was jealous of Wu's dumb new pet for hogging all of his attention. It just wasn't like that, okay?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lead Astray

**Author's Note:**

> A prompt I got that got way out of hand! It's Mako vs Stray in an unofficial cage match for Wu's attention.

It had been a long day, a really long day. Between the wall they had just hit on one of their most important cases and the stacks of paperwork as a result thereof, Mako began to question if Republic City’s criminals were just out to get him personally. The notion was becoming less ridiculous after each passing day.

So, for the umpteenth time that week, he found himself nearly crawling into his home at 2 in the morning miraculously mustering up enough energy to actually make it into his bed. He noted a distinct absence of a certain someone who would usually be sleeping not-so-soundly next to him. A quick bleary eyed look over his shoulder told him that the man in question was currently occupying the bathroom. Probably because of some weird early morning beauty ritual; it wouldn’t really surprise him. But there wasn’t really any time to dwell on it as he found himself falling asleep ever so slowly. He could feel his muscles grow less tense as his body began to relax a bit more. It had definitely been a long day.

“Shhhh. You’ll wake him up.”

A voice, Wu’s voice, floated into the room from behind the bathroom door. Mako refused to open his eyes in favor of ignoring the situation completely.

“No! Hold still.”

If he had been a little more awake maybe he would have questioned who his boyfriend was talking to at such an ungodly hour. But he wasn’t and Mako settled for burying his head under the pillow he had been previously sleeping on instead.

“Hey! You really need to listen-”

Mako nearly gave himself whiplash at the rate that he sat up in his bead. Amongst his boyfriend’s frantic “whispering” the most horrific and disconcerting mix of a hoot and a meow came from that same direction, shortly followed by what sounded like everything they ever owned falling to the ground all at once.

“What the hell,” he whispered to himself rubbing away what little remnants of almost sleep were left lingering in his eyes. Quickly he got up, his body going into full alert as he cautiously approached the door. In one swift motion the fire bender pushed it open not prepared at all for what was actually happening. There laid his pompous boyfriend on the floor of their bathroom wrangling with a creature that looked like it was half owl and half cat. He hadn’t seen that one before.

“Ahhh Wu down! Mako help it’s trying to kill me!” The prince cried flailing his arms around frantically in the air as the bird creature merely began picking lightly at his clothes. With the most annoyed eye roll he could muster in his half asleep state, Mako stuck out his hand which Wu took no time at all latching onto as if his life depended on it. As soon as he had escaped the terrifying “wrath” of the creature that had attacked him, Wu immediately turned to it and began scolding it.

“Young man that is no way for a royal bird to behave! That wasn’t anywhere near remotely cool, and you woke Mako up!” He whirled around to face Mako as if to emphasize his point to the creature. It stared at him blankly before releasing yet another ugly screech. “Why is your eye twitching like that?”

He strongly resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose and take a deep breath and instead opted to address the situation to the best of his abilities. If he was lucky, maybe he’d find out this was just all some weird dream. Spirits help him.

“Wu, what is it and why is it here?”

“Don’t be uncultured, handsome. It’s a Catowl! It kinda just followed me home when I was coming back from my round of Wednesday afternoon clothes shopping. Isn’t it awesome?” The amount of energy the young prince had in him never seemed to deplete and that was really what amazed Mako. Not the dumb bird thing that had now pooped on half of their possessions. He saw the question forming on the tip of his tongue before his boyfriend was even able to spit it out.

“No.” Wu grabbed a hold of his boyfriend’s arms and stared at him in complete horror.

“But that’s not fair! You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”

Mako sighed. “You’re not keeping the Catowl.”

“But Guanjun-“

“Great, you named it already. Wu, no strays.” His ‘but I REALLY want it’ pout was beginning to form as he edged closer to the creature that he had been supposedly terrified of before. It was probably the lack of sleep that made it look like the Catowl was giving him weird looks too.

“Please? We have a connection Mako I can feel it.” Guanjun squawk-meowed in response.

“Fine,” he finally conceded deciding that giving in would mean more sleep for him. “It has to stay in the bathroom all night though, and you have to come back to bed.” The smile that split across Wu’s face gave rise to a warm feeling in Mako’s stomach. It was around 2:30 in the morning now, he had worked for 12 hours straight, he was close to collapsing where he stood, and _of course_ his goofy boyfriend smiling would bring him the biggest sense of peace at this point.

“I knew you’d come around! Let me tuck him in real quick and then I’ll come back to bed.”

The man lingered a bit to watch as the young prince set the worn out animal in their bathtub on a makeshift bed of towels before he walked back to their bed. He unceremoniously flopped down on it struggling to get under the covers and get himself comfortable again. A moment later he felt the other side of the bed dip down a bit and slowly rolled over to face Wu who was now firmly pressed against him shivering under the covers. His boyfriend had always been really bad at maintaining any type of body heat. It was a miracle that he had gotten this far without a fire bender as a boyfriend. Mako let his body heat gradually rise until he heard the soft snoring that indicated the other man had finally fallen asleep. As his consciousness began to wane, he buried his nose in the prince’s hair and gave him a small kiss before allowing himself to finally fall asleep as well.

* * *

 

When he woke up, Mako found that he was alone. A quick glance at the clock told him that he hadn’t slept in at all. It was only 8:15. He groggily forced himself to get out of bed quickly running his hand through his hair and blanching when he remembered he forgot to wash the gel out of it again. With a few stretches to keep himself from getting sore throughout the day, he made his way over to the kitchen to eat whatever monstrosity Wu decided he could attempt to make that day.

The events of earlier that morning nearly slipped his mind until he was sent hurtling back into reality when he saw that his chair, _his_ chair that _he_ owned, was now being occupied by an uncaring Catowl. The animal had perched itself quite comfortably on the chair and pecked away happily at the crumbs that had been sprawled across the table. His boyfriend sat in the chair opposite of the creature making small talk with the thing as if it could really understand him. He barely noticed Mako come in.

“Oh, hey Mako,” Wu greeted dismissively as he continued intensely studying his new pet. Had he just completely been ignored in favor of a stupid cat bird hybrid? There was no way this was actually a thing that was happening. “Uh hey,” he replied weakly scanning the kitchen for any signs of food as his stomach began to rumble. “Did you make breakfast today?”

“Yeah, sort of, but Guanjun and I just got so carried away that we kinda ate all of it. Sorry.” The demon spawn of an animal looked anything but apologetic as it continued to pick at what was supposed to be his first meal of the day. Wu followed up by suggesting that Mako could just cook it for himself and that it would probably taste better anyway.

“I’m just going to go back to bed.” Maybe next time he woke up this problem would be gone.

“Mmm, okay. See ya.” If asked he would neither confirm nor deny that he was personally planning the demise of that creature. Instead of dwelling on it some more he laid down on his bed and closed his eyes deciding to dream for a couple more hours.

* * *

 

When he woke up again he decided it was definitely time for a shower. Remembering the state the bathroom would most likely be in from the night before, the fire bender was a little weary to go in. But the need to get the unseemly amount of gunk out of his hair outweighed all that and he decided it would be better to just get it out of the way. When he opened the door he was surprised to see most everything clean and back where it was supposed to be. It nearly made him happy until he registered that Wu was in the room leaning over the bathtub whispering some incoherent words. A closer look provided him with the fact that the prince was lightly bathing his pet Catowl in the bathtub which he was about to use.

“Stop over reacting so much Guanjun. I just need to dust your feathers a little, that’s it.” Mako cleared his throat to get his boyfriend’s attention and the man didn’t even turn around! He simply muttered a quick ‘Hey again Mako’ and nothing else.

“I actually wanted to shower. I need to look at least half-way decent for work.”

Wu waved him off as if it wasn’t somehow a big deal. “I mean Guanjun had first dibs. We have another bathroom anyway; you can just use that one.”

“But that’s the guest bathroom.” No way. No way was he being demoted to the status of guest within his own home.

“It’s only for today, tough guy.” He could feel his eye begin to twitch again and made sure to grumble the entire way to the guest bathroom. Okay, maybe it was childish but that stupid bird was ruining his life, so there.

* * *

 

After a few more disgruntled hours Mako was finally able to go to work in maybe not the worst mood ever and looking like he slept more than just an hour this time. Compared to the other days before, that day seemed to go by pretty simple. It was absolutely boring because it was solely paperwork and meetings but at least it was simple. He found himself back at his home at the somewhat more reasonable time of 12:30 in the morning and made his way to the room he and Wu shared. Sleep sounded just like what he needed. He’d be able to lay there, close his eyes, and actually have his boyfriend pay attention to him finally.

No, that didn’t mean he was jealous of that dumb catbird and its dumb connection with his (okay not really) dumb boyfriend. Definitely not. It would be stupid to be jealous of an animal.

He kicked off his shoes as he entered their room and relaxed a bit as his eyes landed on the sleeping prince who was doing his very best to take up half of the bed. Moving towards his side he prepared to lay down when suddenly an ear shattering screech came from where he stood. Looking down he saw that the Catowl had laid claim to his side of the bed. Mako’s entire face went red and he let out a small disgruntled yell as the creature did little to move from the spot. This little moment of chaos seemed to be enough to stir Wu awake as he was now rubbing at his eyes and stretching his arms out hilariously wide.

“What’s wrong Mako? Why are you screaming? Wait, are we being attacked?” He questioned rapidly suddenly very awake and extremely paranoid.

“No, this,” Mako declared pointing directly at the animal that had still not budged from his side of the bed.

“Oh yeah, isn’t it completely adorable? Little buddy hasn’t wanted to leave my side all day, which is totally understandable. Isn’t that right Guanjun.” The Catowl again gave its weird squawk-meow in response.

“No! First it takes my chair, then it takes my shower, and then it takes my bed and basically my boyfriend. It’s not adorable.” Mako finished quietly as his small spurt of anger drained the last of his energy. He lifted his head to look at Wu when the distinct sound of a giggle escaped his lips until it turned into a bought of full-blown laughter. It seemed to send some kind of message to the pet as it willingly flew from the bed and to one of the end tables instead as the man continued to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” He couldn’t honestly figure out how his being miserable would fuel any source of hilarity.

“Are-are you jealous of a Catowl?” Mako sputtered trying to respond which only made Wu laugh that much more.

“Oh my gosh, you’re jealous of a Catowl.” His boyfriend’s little laughing fit was doing nothing to lighten the mood.

“No, it’s just-“

“Hey, sit.” Mako actually obeyed, mostly because he was a little too worn out to do anymore complaining.

“Okay so yeah I admit Guanjun is pretty cool and all because obviously I have impeccable taste in the company I keep.” Mako snorted. “But I love you a crazy unexplainable amount more, tough guy. You’re not competing for my attention; you’re one of the oh-so-lucky ones that already fully has it.” Leave it to his boyfriend to turn borderline sappy moments into monologues about his greatness. Not that he preferred sappy moments; he really wasn’t for all that either.

Instead of responding he decided to wipe the smug smirk of his face as he pulled Wu into a lazy kiss effectively silencing him for the moment being. When he pulled away the smile that always made him feel extremely sappy was left lingering on the prince’s face. “I love you too.” Wu cuddled closer to Mako pulling the covers over them both as he began to get cold again.

“Yeah, I know.” Just as they began getting comfortable a loud screech reminded them both that they weren’t alone.

“He’s sleeping in the bathroom again tonight; we’re getting him a cage tomorrow.” Wu’s eyes lit up at the comment.

“So I get to keep him still?” He had the strongest urge to lean in and kiss him again, and this time never stop.

“Yeah, because… it makes you happy.” The other man jumped out of the bed at break neck speed to attempt to herd their permanent pet into the bathroom.

“You’re the best boyfriend ever!”

Mako watched as Wu disappeared behind the bathroom door clearly struggling to keep the Catowl still. He pulled the covers further over his face and covered his ears with both his hands as yet another cry erupted from the horrid animal. “Yeah, I know.”

It was going to be another long night, but in the end it really would be worth it.


End file.
